Techmeme: A Q&A With Reid Hoffman About Greylock's Discovery Fund (Pui-Wing Tam/Digits)

9:10 PM ET, September 27, 2010

Top Items:

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Breaking: AOL Close to Buying TechCrunch — AOL, the New York-based online media company, is on the verge of acquiring TechCrunch, the online blogging network started by former attorney, Michael Arrington. The deal is at a sensitive stage and might fall apart yet, but I don't think so.

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, At Your Servers, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, Silicon Alley Insider, The Seattle Times and PE Hub Blog, more at Mediagazer », Thanks:bpedro

Dharmesh Mehta / The Windows Blog:

WordPress.com and Windows Live partnering together and providing an upgrade for 30 million Windows Live Spaces customers — Over the last few weeks, we've spent a good bit of time talking about our approach to partnering with the web, and as part of that, how we're deeply integrating …

Paul Kim / WordPress News:

Welcome Windows Live Spaces Bloggers — We're excited to announce that WordPress.com is now the default blogging platform for Windows Live Spaces users. We've worked with our partners at Microsoft to create a simple migration service for Spaces bloggers to easily bring all their posts, comments, and photos to WordPress.com.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Changing Way, Andy Beard, Techie Buzz and Pulse2, more at Mediagazer »

Mary Jo Foley / All about Microsoft Blog:
Microsoft makes it official: Windows Live is no longer a blogging platform

Discussion: VentureBeat

John Paczkowski / Digital Daily:

RIM Unveils BlackBerry Playbook Tablet — Research in Motion co-CEO Mike Lazaridis had his “one more thing” moment today at the company's 2010 DevCon conference. Near end of his opening keynote address today Lazaridis, after making a number of big announcements — in-app payments for BlackBerry apps …

Chris Ziegler / Engadget:
RIM announces WebWorks development kit, in-app payments, ad platform, and BBM API

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Exclusive: Want Twitter to Help You Find More Followers? Pay Up For a “Promoted Account.” — Twitter is still working to get its first two ad products up and running. But it's going to launch a third, anyway: Tomorrow the company will show off “Promoted Accounts” at an ad industry conference in New York.

Discussion: Mashable!, The Next Web, webpronews.com, msnbc.com, Lost Remote and The Huffington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:
Twitter to Start Selling Followers

Discussion: The Next Web

Todd Agulnick / Xmarks Blog:

End of the Road for Xmarks — As I write this, it's a typical Sunday here at Xmarks. The synchronization service continues operating quietly, the servers chugging along syncing browser data for our 2 million users across their 5 million desktops. The day isn't over yet, but we're on track to add just under 3000 new accounts today.

Discussion: GigaOM and TechCrunch

Olga Kharif / Business Week:

Apple Threatens Search Giants' Mobile Ad Shares — Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! have swiftly lost share in the U.S. mobile advertising market to Apple's new iAd. Independent rivals such as Jumptap and Millennial Media are gaining, too — Apple (AAPL) may be gaining share …

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Yep, Amazon Launching Their Own App Store For Android Too — Earlier today, after several tips, we guessed that Amazon may be close to launching its own app store for Android — yes, another Android app store. Sources we reached out to weren't sure about what exactly Amazon was launching …

Discussion: Daring Fireball, Kindle Review, IntoMobile, BuzzingUp and ListWare

Pui-Wing Tam / Digits:

A Q&A With Reid Hoffman About Greylock's Discovery Fund — Earlier Monday, Greylock Partners venture capitalist and longtime entrepreneur Reid Hoffman announced that Greylock is launching a $20 million Discovery Fund that will do seed fundings of start-ups.

Journalism.org:

WHEN TECHNOLOGY MAKES HEADLINES — THE MEDIA'S DOUBLE VISION ABOUT THE DIGITAL AGE — The mainstream news media have offered the American public a divided view of how information technology influences society, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Spiegel Online:

WikiLeaks Spokesman Quits — Daniel Schmitt, who has revealed that his true name is Daniel Domscheit-Berg, says WikiLeaks has a structural problem. “I no longer want to take responsibility for it,” he says. — In an interview with SPIEGEL, Daniel Schmitt — the 32-year-old German spokesman …

Royal Pingdom:

Hold on a second, is Blackberry growing as fast as Android? — There has been much said about the imminent demise of RIM's Blackberry in the face of the unstoppable momentum of Android (and previously the iPhone). But here's an interesting piece of information: According to data from Statcounter …

Discussion: BetaNews, Computerworld, IntoMobile, eWeek, ReadWriteWeb and webpronews.com, Thanks:rawmeet

Donald Melanson / Engadget:

HP's Bradley: HP isn't trying to be Apple, will sell 15 million webOS printers next year — It's no secret that HP's Todd Bradley is one of the leading candidates to succeed ousted CEO Mark Hurd, and it doesn't look like he was doing much to dissuade that notion at the now happening TechCrunch Disrupt conference.

Discussion: Everything webOS, TechCrunch, SlashGear, SiliconANGLE, PreCentral.net and Electronista

Ryan Kim / GigaOM:
Where is the Next Great Smartphone from Palm and HP?

Discussion: Technologizer, Daring Fireball, TechCrunch, Between the Lines Blog, Boy Genius Report and CNET News

Bloomberg:

Sony, Warner, Disney Said to Plan $30 Home Film-Viewing Option — Sony Pictures, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co. are in talks with the largest cable TV systems to offer films for as much as $30 per showing soon after they run in theaters. — The studios are talking with In Demand …

Discussion: PC World, NewTeeVee, Electronista, Stage Two, CrunchGear, fierceonlinevideo.com …, CNET News and DailyFinance, more at Mediagazer »

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Kno To Build A Single Screen, Education-Focused Tablet — Kno Inc, the company that recently received $ 46 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Silicon Valley Bank and TriplePoint Capital to build “the most powerful tablet anyone has ever made” announces at TC Disrupt that it will also be building …

Discussion: Gadget Lab, Bits, Pulse2, Engadget, CNET News, GottaBeMobile, BoomTown, SlashGear, Silicon Alley Insider, Techland, Obsessable, Electronista and Liliputing, Thanks:robertchute

James Hibberd / The Hollywood Reporter:

Another Twitter feed gets CBS comedy deal — Exclu: Call it “$#*! My Roommate Says.” — CBS is developing two new comedies, including a project based off a Twitter feed produced by social-media master Ashton Kutcher. — Following on the successful launch of its Twitter-inspired comedy “$#*!

Discussion: CBS News and Gawker

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Peter Thiel Has New Initiative To Pay Kids To “Stop Out Of School” — Today at our TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco, Clarium Capital President Peter Thiel sat down with our own Sarah Lacy to talk about a whole range of issues. But at the end of the dicussion, he disclosed a bit of news.

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, Gawker, VentureBeat and Silicon Alley Insider

Paul Graham / Y Combinator:

What Happens At Y Combinator — (We realized recently that a lot of people don't understand very well what YC does, so I wrote something explaining that in detail. Since YC has been shaped by the needs of hundreds of early stage startups, this should be interesting not just to potential applicants …

Thanks:atul

Dan Rayburn / Business of Video:

Confirmed: Hulu Coming To Roku Streaming Boxes — Last week I got sent a photo of a Hulu channel on the Roku home screen and have confirmed that Hulu will be coming to Roku devices shortly. While both Roku and Hulu said “no comment” when I asked them about it, I was able to confirm …

Discussion: NewTeeVee, TechCrunch, VentureBeat and The Business Of Online Video, Thanks:danrayburn

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Peter Thiel: Facebook Won't IPO Until 2012 At The Earliest — Facebook's first investor Peter Thiel told Fox Business today that Facebook will not IPO until 2012. Earlier this summer, Bloomberg reported that Facebook was holding off on its IPO for another two years and Thiel seems to confirm this line of thinking.

Discussion: Inside Facebook, GigaOM, Tech Trader Daily, webpronews.com, The Next Web and SelectStart

Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:

Mark Zuckerberg, comic book action hero? — If you needed any further proof that the story of Facebook's origins has captivated the world, get this: A Vancouver-based comic book company called Bluewater Productions announced on Monday that later this year, it'll be releasing a title called “Mark Zuckerberg: Creator of Facebook.”

Discussion: All Facebook

Reuters:

Cisco to debut consumer gear — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cisco Systems Inc is set to unveil a new consumer product in October, the company said, amid expectations for a cheaper, consumer-friendly version of its popular TelePresence videoconference systems. — A spokesman on Monday declined …

Discussion: Beet.TV

Ben / MailChimp Email Marketing Blog:

Going Freemium: One Year Later — On September 1st, 2009 we announced that MailChimp was going freemium. On that day, we had 85,000 users. Now, slightly more than a year later, we have more than 450,000 users. We grew our user base five times in one year.

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

TechCrunch Disrupt LIVE Webcast, Day One (TCTV) — Standby in 3 - 2 - 1: We are now live from San Francisco with TechCrunch Disrupt. If you can't make the conference in person, you can still watch all the great panels, fireside chats, product launches, and the Startup Battlefield, plus a few surprises on TechCrunch TV.

Discussion: LiveSide.net, Inside Social Games, GigaOM and TechFlash

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